Should we buy dollars?
 

Hi Everyone,

We are November applicants on a 136 MODL. Hopefully we should get our Visa June/JUly time.

We have just sold our house and I was wondering whether we should buy Aussie Dollars (if they are high) prior to Visa issue? If, for some reason, we were refused a visa, could we then exchange them back to sterling once the balance tipped back in our favour? What are the charges and are we likely to be able to make some money on say, £200,000?

Any help really appreciated.


Carol:)

Re: Should we buy dollars?
 

With that amount of money, tiny changesd in the rates can make (or lose) a lot of difference. Please get professional advice on this. Talk to one of the brokers life ozforex or hifx who deal in currencies every day and are best placed to give you the best advice.

Best of luck

Re: Should we buy dollars?
 

Have you considered where you would put the dollars? To avoid paying witholding tax on interest at source with most aussie bank accounts you need to provide a tax file number. We are looking at the 6.60% Bank West 6 month Term Deposit or the 6.70% Bankwest TeleNet 12-month term Deposit for the money we just changed.

Goodl Luck

Mark

Re: Should we buy dollars?
 

Thought Bankwest was 6.8% for the telenet saver

Re: Should we buy dollars?
 

Yes, Telenet Saver is 6.8, Telenet Term Deposit is 6.7

http://www.abetterdeal.com.au/TeleNet_Saver/index.asp
http://www.abetterdeal.com.au/TeleNet_Term_Deposit/

Re: Should we buy dollars?
 

Just to add to that, if you don't provide a TFN your bank will automatically deduct NRT (non-resident tax) which is at the rate of 10% (of the interest). Thus for example the 6.7% gross TD would clear 6.03% net after NRT (0.9 x 6.7)/ 6.8% = 6.12% etc. On the other hand, those with TFN's would pay tax at a higher rate than 10% so I wouldn't see not having a TFN as a disadvantage for a non-resident.

As said, get advice, esp for what is potentially just over $0.5 mill. The rate though is good at the present time it must be said compared to the last year or so and you are going to get more $'s probably than those who have moved in 2005 or 2006. Good luck!

OzTennis :)

Re: Should we buy dollars?
 

AAAAARRRGGGGHHHH

Quadruple negative!!!!

:beer:

Buzzy

Re: Should we buy dollars?
 

That's gotta be some kind of record !

We are in a similar boat at the moment. We have sold our house and have the money in Icesave at the mo @ 5.70%.
Although we would like to transfer the cash to Oz now, the only account we have in OZ is a current a/c with ANZ who won't let us open a deposit a/c until we have been in and activated the current a/c.

We don't go until April 2nd so have resigned oursleves to leaving it in the icesave and seeing what the rate is when we get there. If it has gone down then it'll have to stay here until it goes back up.

Unless anyone knows of an account you can open from here without a TFN number or oz address which is what they all seem to want online.

Andy

Re: Should we buy dollars?
 

I'd like to echo what the original question was as I'm thinking the same thing.
I've already registered with ozforex and I'm happy with the rate just now. If I wanted to change say £50k into Oz $'s, would Ozforex hold it for me somehow until I get to Oz and was ready to deposit it into an account there??( awaiting visa number so I can send off Westpac forms )

ALSO, if we exchanged our cash now with Ozforex and they held it for us but then we didn't get our visa - would it be as straightforwards to change it back to sterling???

Anyone know/anyone done this?

*pearly*

Re: Should we buy dollars?
 

Thank you everyone for the replies so far.

As Pearly says, the other part of the Question is, if we get declined, could we just convert back to sterling at an advantageous time?

The simple part of my head says there are non-emigrating people that make lots of money by playing the money markets - how do they do it and could it work for us?

Your thoughts please....;)

Re: Should we buy dollars?
 

But careful use of tax-free thresholds for non-working partners can also make it worthwhile for TFN-holders

Mark

Re: Should we buy dollars?
 

if you go to Ozforex website they have a bit where you can enter the amount of £s and will show you how many $s you get. They show the interbank rate, and the rate which you will get (which is slightly lower as they have to make their money somehow.)

Generally I have seen the difference between the 2 rates as 1.1c for any amount over £50k (bigger difference for less than £50k) - I sure if you could get the difference down for £200k.

They also have graphs for varying timelines over the last 10yrs - yes some lucky :curse: got rates around 2.90, but from memory in the last 5yrs it has spent most of the time under 2.56

Re: Should we buy dollars?
 

We opened a westpac account before we had our visa, we just wrote in our visa acknowledgment reference number, the account was open within two weeks. Once opened you have 60 days to lodge funds to fully open the account but this can be as little as 1$.
We now have our visa and have this week transfered funds into the account via Ozforex but we can't touch those funds again until we turn up at the branch we have chosen to use the account ( Brisbane). we aren't going to arrive until mid march. We don't have any Oz address yet either.
I found it all very easy.

Re: Should we buy dollars?
 

Do a forward contract with Ozforex like we did. Book the rate, which will be slightly better than todays rate, pay a 5% deposit and pay the rest on maturity (we chose July). Then keep the money in Icesave earning interest until maturity, by which time you should be in Oz with a bank account open.

:beer:

Buzzy

Re: Should we buy dollars?
 

Presumably goes down, then, as a "negative post" <g>